Jurnal Pengajian Media Malaysia Jilid 12
Malaysian journal of media studies volume 12
Vol. 12, no. 1, 2010
Pages 61–76
Cultural Discourse Using Visual Elements:
An Analysis of a TDC Brochure
Mus Chairil Samani & Jamilah Maliki
Abstract
A picture paints a thousand words but a photographic image tells of a
reality that is said to be truthful and captivating. Analysis of marketing
materials, such as brochures and other promotional campaign materials
has always focused on its target audience. This type of analysis gauges the
audience responses to a new campaign material. Analysis on the content
of promotional materials has somehow been lacking and almost always
focused on the available textual materials. This paper departs from the
normal norms of looking at textual materials and instead focuses on the
photographic images that appear in most promotional materials, especially
brochures. This article seeks to understand the system of visual language
that is inherent in brochures. To do this, we had done a visual semiotic
analysis on all the photographic images in a brochure on Kelantan that
was published by the Tourism Development Corporation of Malaysia. The
findings indicate that the system of visual language that is being used in this
brochure allow people across culture to engage on its constructed meanings.
Keywords: visual, semiotics, representation, culture, discourse
Introduction
Photographs have its own system of language that allows people to socially construct
its meaning. Photographs like its counterpart the paintings, paints a thousand words
in the minds of its readers. Although both conjure up different words in the readers’
mind but photographs have a distinct advantage over paintings. Photographs are
said to convey reality that is truthful.
Due to its expressive powers, photographs are used widely and pervasively
by the various mass media whether printed, digital or electronic. It is purposely
used to convey messages just like verbal or written language is used to articulate
ideas or thoughts. These messages in photographic images that are published by
the mass media generate meanings through a system that is similar to language.
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To comprehend these meanings, readers of photographs used in the different mass
media have to learn to decode the encoded meanings that are embedded in them.
In other words, readers are called to engage in its socially construction knowledge
of (some aspects of) reality. Kress and Van Leeuwen (2001: 4) said:
By ‘socially constructed’ we mean that they have been developed in specific
social contexts, and in ways which are appropriate to the interests of social
actors in these contexts, whether they are very broad contexts or not,
explicitly institutionalised contexts or not and so.
Knowledge on processing of messages embedded in photographic images are never
formalised like the learning of verbal or written languages. Educating the masses on
the embedded meanings in all types of visual images is done informally. Moriarty
(1996) argued that reality-grounded perceptual processes used in understanding
these media are largely untutored and mastered through experience rather than
education. In other words, this self-taught system of knowledge is discovered upon
perception.
Pierce (1991: 258) made a passionate plea to scholars “not be in haste to deride
a kind of thinking that is evidently founded upon observation.”
Because languages are said to be supra ‘mastercodes’ that allow knowledge
to be transferred ‘monomodal’ to the next generation, the learning of verbal and
written language could be formalised and structured in every society. The underlying
assumption in the formalising and structuring on educating members of society
on written and verbal language is that language has developed into a system of
knowledge that allows one to think.
With language as the fundamental and pervasive mode of human
communication, we are apt to think that only language allows one to think. Thus
it is accepted as the norm to assume that words construct our perception and
understanding of reality since language is the primary mode of communication
among humankind. With language, humankind is able to pass along the acquired
cultural knowledge to the next generation. This was the underlying assumption
in publication of books. Publications of books and other printed materials have
taken place or made possible because humankind has found the means to encode
knowledge via the alphabet.
But the question that begs our attention is whether our perception and
understanding of reality are necessary word based. Such thinking led to the
development of separate theory for languages (linguistics), another to speak about
art (art history), yet another to speak about photograph (photographic literacy) and
so on, each with its own methods, its own assumption, its own technical vocabulary,
its own strengths and its own blind spots.
This paper takes the view that it is possible to make sense of visual elements
without the mediation of language. If visual elements have its own structured
language (see Graddol, 1994; Moriarty, 1994; Turner, 1994) audience are able to
perceive its meanings. Structuring of meanings in photographic images is easier
with the technological development of analogue to digital mode of photography.
Brochures are important advertising and marketing tools. Textual and
photographic images printed on brochures are chosen carefully to convey a certain
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Cultural Discourse Using Visual Elements: An Analysis of a TDC Brochure
idea in the minds of its targeted audience. Proper planning and coordination
are necessary to achieve the desire effects and everybody who is involved in the
development of a brochure will have to be well verse on its exact objectives. To
understand whether a published brochure has been packaged accordingly, a visual
semiotic reading of photographic images in a brochure on Kelantan, published by
the Tourism Development Corporation of Malaysia was analyzed. In conducting
this type of descriptive analysis, we am reminded by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996)
that as researchers, we are ourselves participating in the reshaping of the semiotic
landscapes.
Theory and Method
The selection of the brochure on Kelantan that was published by the Tourism
Development Corporation of Malaysia was done purposely. The brochure was
selected because as an east coast states, Kelantan is said to be one the heartland
states of the Malays. Whether it is planned or selected by nature, Malays are residing
dominantly in the northern states of the Peninsula of Malaysia. The majority of
Malays residing in Kelantan allows the state to be portrayed distinctively from the
other states in Malaysia. Portrayal of the state of Kelantan in the TDC brochure has
been done using multimodal perspective.
To understand the multimodal perspective, a visual semiotic reading of
photographic images was carried out. This mode of analysis differs from the
dominant mode of analysing mass media content (Mus Chairil, 2004).
The analytical roots of this paper can be traced back to Saussure. Saussure
(1974: 16) was the one who said that semiotic is “a science that studies the life of
signs within society.” In this simple and all encompassing definition, Saussure was
referring to language made up of signs, which communicate meaning. From the
very beginning, he has never restricted communication of meaning to only that of
written and verbal language. After all, alphabets are made up of signs and a word is
made by combining consonants and vowels to signify a particular idea. The relation
between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary and it is culturally biased.
The same arguments can be put forth when images are used as signs. Thus
anything that could communicate meanings has potential to be studied as linguistic
signs, using the same method of analysis. Further more, media texts are objects
produced with the explicit intention to engaging an audience (Burton, 2005).
Uexkull (1981) who proposed Umwelt theory talks of an existence of a buffer
zone or “umwelt”. It says that between internal life of an individual and his or her
outside world is a perceptual process that allows him or her to think or know of
the outside world through his or her senses. In other words, non-verbal perception
of meaning and construction of reality run in contrast to language-based theorists
who believe that perception is only converted to knowledge through language.
Many visual communication scholars, such as Cherwitz and Hikins (1986) have
long noted that it is possible to apprehend signs and make sense of them without the
mediation of language. On this point, Arnheim (1997) was the person who coined
the phrase that “visual perception is visual thinking.” Arnheim (1997: 18) said,
“The great virtue of vision is that it is not only a highly articulate medium, but its
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universe offers inexhaustibly rich information about the objects and events of the
outside world. Therefore, vision is the primary medium of thought.”
On this premise, this paper argues that photographs used in printed promotional
materials such as brochures work as a system of signs that gives form and meaning
to consciousness and reality (see Bignell, 2002). While language is used to interpret
certain types of information, especially abstract and theoretical concepts, but a great
deal of what we processed visually is managed not by stopping to find a word for it.
A brochure is made of a combination of textual materials and photographic
images to conjure its target audience to pick it up and go through it. Thus the
interpretation of photographs in brochures is done unconsciously although we
are seldom aware of its powerful effect on us. Photographs as well as other visual
elements add another dimension to the written messages in brochures to inform,
persuade, provoke or motivate us to buy things, calls us to action, informs us about
products, services, people, events and causes. Brochures as tool for promotional
purposes are done creatively to ensure impact among targeted audience. Selection
and presentation of photographic visual images in a printed brochure can affect
its meaning. Crane (1992: 15-16) argues that “(visual images) provide symbolic
context that confers meanings on the product that it does not intrinsically possess.
Specifically, (visual images of) objects or people have connotations for the segment
of the public (emphasis mine)”.
Signs in the form of photographic images are considered by Barthes (1977) to
‘polysemous’. To comprehend these images, Barthes argued that language has to
be brought in and thus making visual images as subordinate to verbal messages.
Kress and Van Leeuwen (1990) reject the notion of visual images as impoverished or
diminished version of the ‘mastercode’, namely verbal language. With technology
making it possible to use myriad forms of visual images in print media, the need
for people to be able to process and comprehend the vast and varied information
becoming a matter of survival especially in the workplace (Kress and Leeuwen, 1996).
The semiotic analysis was carried out on photograph as a form of text because
such an analysis has the potential to offer a perspective into the construction of
ideology. Studying ideology is actually “to study the ways in which meaning (or
signification) serves to sustain relations of domination” (Thompson, 1984: 4).
The analysis of the images is grounded upon a framework that was developed
by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996, 1999). The developed framework is grounded
upon Halliday’s metafunctions (1973, 1978). Kress and Van Leeuwen propose
a model of “reading images” along three dimensions of meaning making:
ideational metafunction, interpersonal metafunction and textual metafunction.
‘Ideational metafunction’ focuses the representation of ideas and experiences; the
‘interpersonal metafunction’ embodies on the enactment of social relations and
‘textual metafunction’ explores into the structural organisation and positioning of
ideas within a text.
Of the three metafunctions, in this paper we shall be focusing solely on
ideational metafunction, following Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996) reinterpretation
of visual imagery as something that can be ‘read’. The various images are ‘read’
as text that implies not just the ability to read but also the knowledge that comes
from reading (Graddol, 1994).
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Cultural Discourse Using Visual Elements: An Analysis of a TDC Brochure
Analysis
The TDC brochure that was selected for analysis is Kelantan and has been subtitled as
“Malaysia Gambaran Asia (Malaysia Truly Asia).” The colourful brochure portrays
the Kelantan Malay culture in many lights. It is acknowledged that certain images
that are distinctively Kelantan have been emphasised to create the intended effects.
On the front page of the brochure are visual images of “Wau” (Kelantan kite),
“gasing” (spinning top), Siti Khadijah wet market and boats mooring at a fishing
village which are located on the top portion of the brochure. At the bottom are the
intricate carvings on the bow of a fishing boat.
The clusters of images on the upper and bottom portion of the cover of
brochure indicate emphasis. In any print media the most important element is
always positioned on the top. This structure is inherent throughout the brochure.
The couple playing the “Wau” signifies peace and harmony among the people of
the State. Signification is an important element in visual design. While you may
see women at kites playing grounds but their participation is limited to observers
on the sidelines of the field. The men folks of Kelantan participate in various
traditional games such as the spinning top, flying kite and showcasing shadow
puppets performance.
The main actors throughout the brochure are the Malay race. This is used to
imply that this is the dominant group of people living in Kelantan. Thus, the missing
element is presence of the other races in Kelantan. The absence of the other races
could be due to the fact that TDC also produces brochures for the other states which
were not analyzed for this article. TDC may have chosen to emphasis the Malay
culture for the state of Kelantan.
The Malay male subject is bigger and positioned on top of the front page of the
brochure with a purpose. This is the underlying tone throughout the brochure (flap
1, 4, 5, 9, and 10). The media has always portrayed that the males in Malaysia are
more powerful than the female and the country as a whole practices a patriarchal
kinship system. This reading should be corrected because the Siti Khadijah wet
market is run virtually by the female gender. The running of the wet market is
unique to Kelantan but it is not the only state where the females play an active
role and contribute towards the well-being of the family. The other state is Negri
Sembilan. It serves to show that the women of Kelantan and Negri Sembilan are
financially stable and very independent.
The detailed images of every photographic images in the Kelantan brochure,
as Hodge and Kress (1988) has argued stand for realism or proximity. “(It) stand(s)
for present time, which can stand for factuality. An image lacking in detail and
denseness can stand for unreality or distance, which can stand for past time, which
can stand for fictionality” (Hodge and Kress, 1988: 134). Images that are sharper
and detailed are considered as “high modality” or lack of ambiguity.
The element of time can also be shown in graphic design representation of past
mode of transportation such as the trishaw (Flap 4). Trishaws have always been
connected as the traditional Eastern mode of transportation. Thus it is not surprising
that the Malaysian trishaws will always be represented in brochures produced by
TDC. This mode of transportation is promoted by the Malaysian tourism authority
to attract the foreign visitors. Tourists taking a ride on the three-wheels pedal
powered vehicle will be ferried to nearby places of interest. They are not meant for
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long distance journey. For such purposes, you will have to take the taxies or buses.
Trishaw is no longer used by the local ever since the arrival of automobiles. Today,
taxis and buses are popular mode of transport for locals and tourists alike.
Thus if any foreign visitors want to visit any nature sites such as the Jelawang
waterfall (Flap 7), Gua Musang or Mount Stong (Flap 8) in the hinterland of Kelantan,
they cannot go there with trishaws. The distance to be covered before one can reach
this places of interest is too far and beyond the capabilities for the pedal powered
vehicles to travel. Tourists will either have to hire taxies or make the trip using
the intercity buses. European and western travellers, except for budget travellers
may not be accustomed to the conditions of the intercity buses connecting these
towns. Most of these intercity buses are not air-conditioned and you have to make
the journey during daytime. Most of the intercity buses operates from morning to
dusk. Thus it can take away the smiles on the faces of tourists as in flap 7, if they
have to travel during the daytime. Malaysians maybe accustomed to the hot and
humid conditions throughout the year, but for foreigners soon they will be sweating
under the heat of the sun.
Although modality is central in written and verbal languages, it also occurs in
visual representation. Modality is expressed less systematic in visual images. Thus,
the background of a sunset in soft focus on the front of the Kelantan brochure is
used to signify fantasy and a form of visual idealisation. This ideal situation can
be misleading to foreigners who may not know where Malaysia is. You can see the
sunrises of the shoreline of Kelantan, but you will never be able to see the sunset
of the beach.
To give credence to the visual fantasy in the brochure, foreigners especially
Caucasians are depicted in various images and settings (Flap 5, 7,8,9, and 10). They
are being portrayed as savouring the many cultural and natural landscapes that are
available in Kelantan. Foreign actors add a notion of credibility and believability
on the beauty of Kelantan heritage. It anchors the various images on the element of
truth. It is also used to signify peace and tranquillity. Thus, foreigners as guaranteed
of their safety and well-being throughout their stay in Kelantan. This reading is well
and fine if the brochure is printed and written in the English language where the
foreign audiences are more apt with this language. The Kelantan brochure analyzed
in this study is written in the Malay language, thus the use of foreigner as actors in
this brochure is not necessary. The use of the Malay language can only imply that
the brochure is targeted for local consumption.
Seeing has, in our culture, become synonymous with understanding. We
‘look’ at a problem. We ‘see’ the point. We adopt a ‘viewpoint’. We ‘focus’
on an issue. We ‘see things in perspective.’ The world ‘as we see it’ (rather
than ‘as we know it’, and certainly not ‘as we hear it’, or ‘as we feel it’) has
become the measure of what is ‘real’ and ‘true’ (Kress and Van Leeuwen,
1990: 52).
The position of maps in the brochure, one on the state of Kelantan and the other
of the city of Kelantan, serves to locate places of interest for foreign tourists (Flap
2 and 3). These maps locate the state within a specific time and space continuum.
It engages the readers with precise location of places and sites that are real. The
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location of Kelantan on the map also serves to signify its position as one of the states
in the Federation of Malaysia.
The visual discourse throughout the brochure is unquestionably to promote
and showcase the Kelantanese Islamic Malay cultural heritage. The museums of
Kelantan are mostly housed in buildings which were once palaces of the Kelantan
royalties (flap 5 and 6). The cultural artefacts and local custom from the various
strata of the Kelantanese Malay are embedded at every folds of the brochure. In
essence, it deconstructs the notion of a multiracial and multicultural Malaysia. As
with any other brochures, its sole purpose as an advertising medium is not to tell
the whole truth but to promote the unique selling proposition of an idea, product
or service. Thus, in the case of the TDC brochure it is to sell the state of Kelantan
for tourists both locally and internationally.
Conclusion
Visual images are manufactured and produced in many forms. It can be in a form
of a running picture or still photographs. Images can be formed using specialised
cameras or drawn or hand painted by an artist with near like reality. The selection of
still photographic images is chosen as an object of study because we are now living in
an industrialised and centrally managed discharge of massive symbols-systems that
are part of the mainstream of common consciousness. Emotion plays an important
role in selection of photographs (Normah et al., 2009). These images symbols systems
are mass-produced by and distributed by complex industrial structures and are
loaded with culturally embedded messages. While the conclusion is somehow
limited due to the scope of still photographic images that had been analyzed, the
findings indicate a system of visual language that focuses readers attention in
socially constructing a ‘portion’ of reality. The ‘portion’ that is being portrayed and
represented will definitely be in the control of the producer of the media producer.
What is important, a semiotic visual analysis allows for the unearthing of the actual
reality. Although it is biased but in exercising reflexivity, we are able to highlight
the hidden structure in the visual text. Structures are important elements in the
designing of promotional materials. As Kress and Van Leeuwen (2001: 5) contend:
Design stands midway between content and expression. It is the conceptual
side of expression and the expression side of conception…. Designs are means
to realise discourses in the context of a given communication situation. But
designs also add something new: they realise the communication situation
which changes socially constructed knowledge into social (inter-) action.
Visual designers are always inspired by what is available. Thus the designers of
the Kelantan brochure is able to construct only a portion of reality. Designers are
entrusted with the task of telling the story, in this case the narrative is about the
state of Kelantan, within the limited space available. The story that the designers
can tell is restricted both the time and space constraints as well as the demands of
the producers of this type of promotional media. Designers who have strong artistic
and creative flairs can only encode what is available and structure it accordingly
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to job specification. They may have other thoughts on how best to tell the story but
their viewpoints have to sync with the owners of the promotional media.
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Appendix A
Flap 1
Flap 2
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Flap 3 here
Flap 4
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Flap 5
Flap 6
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Flap 7
Flap 8
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Flap 9
Flap 10
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Flap 11
Flap 12
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